THE laver occupied an important place in the service of the sanctuary of Jehovah. It was situated between the brazen altar at the entrance of the court, to which all Israel had access, and the entrance to the holy place where only priests could approach.
The material of which it was made was the looking-glasses of the women who were in the habit of attending the tent that had been temporarily set up for worship. That therefore which had been used for adorning the flesh was formed into a vessel to be used in cleansing it.
The laver was probably filled with water from the smitten rock, the water being figurative of the cleansing power of the word. There the priests washed their hands and feet before entering the holy place to minister in the presence of God. Omission to do so meant death. So jealous was God of His holy character that no priest could worship before Him with the tiniest spot of defilement upon his person (Ex. 30:18-21).
In the laver, then, we see God’s provision for cleansing the priests of old from defilement, and in this respect it is a type of what the Lord Jesus is now doing on high for every Christian.
When He hung upon the cross a soldier pierced His side and forthwith came there out blood and water (John 19:34). The blood was to justify and the water to sanctify the soul. The priests of Israel were first washed at the door of the tabernacle to consecrate them to God’s service (Ex. 29:1-5). After that they needed only to wash their hands and feet at the laver, in order to maintain their fitness for worship and service. To His disciples the Lord Jesus said, “Now [or, already] ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). Again, “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit” (John 13:10).
The first washing of the priests is evidently a figure therefore of the complete cleansing through which the sinner passes when he is saved. The blood of Christ is applied to the person by the Lord Himself, through the word, and by the instrumentality of the Holy Ghost. Hence we have in Rev. 1:5, “Unto him that loves us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” This washing is never repeated, because the efficacy of the blood ever remaineth the same (Heb. 9:12, 28).
Further, the priests of old were constantly defiling their hands and feet with the sacrifices in the court, and with the dust of the desert. Therefore their need of cleansing for the work of the sanctuary. Having washed at the laver, however, they were admitted to all the joy and blessing of the holy place; for the food, light, and communion were the portion of the priests only.
The Christian is in an analogous position to-day. In his pilgrimage down here he is called to pass through a scene where all is directly opposed to God, and everything that is of God in himself. The world is his enemy. The old nature is still within him. Satan is as busy as ever he was. He and the world act upon the old nature, with the result that the mind and conscience become defiled; for it is a solemn fact that an unhallowed aspiration, a covetous desire, a self-willed action, will interrupt communion, obscure the glory to which we are called (1 Thess. 2:12) and spoil our joy.
Thus the need is seen of our feet being continually washed by Christ. This He does by the application of the word. “When we sin the Lord undertakes our cause with the Father. He thereon exercises the office of the advocate (1 John 2:1). The result to us ward is that the Spirit of God bins, in God’s clue time, to deal with us about it—to bring the sin to our remembrance, to apply the word to our consciences, to produce thereby in us self-judgment, leading us on to confession of our sin, God is then faithful and just to forgive us our sins, etc. (1 John 1:9). Thus we are restored” to a sense of complete pardon, we are brought back again into fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and the enjoyment of all its blessedness. He brings to our apprehension by the Holy Ghost what we are as seen in Him, and enables us to rejoice in it. Thus does He ever continue to wash our feet. Let us remember, however, that perfect as is the provision made in case of failure, it gives no license to sin; on the contrary, an apostle reminds us that he wrote in order that we should not sin (1 John 2:1).
Again, the priests themselves washed their hands and feet. And it is well to remember that the Christian is responsible to diligently maintain personal holiness, because it is written, “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). This holiness however can only flow from the action of the word of God on our works and ways. “By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer,” and by that same word our practical sanctification is carried on. The apostle calls on the saints to cleanse themselves (2 Cor. 7:1), and this can only be done by taking heed or watching according to God’s word (Psa. 119:9). Let us, then, seek to have the dividing and discriminating power of the word brought to bear upon our lives and conduct, so that what is not of it may be discovered and removed (Heb. 4:12). Thus shall we be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22).
W.T.H.